TriMet's open source heaven: The 5 best transit-rider apps

With its riders increasingly using mobile devices and the web to navigate the bus and MAX system, TriMet today opened an online "app center" offering links to more than two dozen transit applications.

TriMet's says its open-source philosophy to make schedule and route data available to all third-party developers has made it a leader among the nation's public transit systems.

"It's a position that is paying off as demonstrated by the growing number of innovative tools available to help make transit more simple and convenient for our riders," said Fred Hansen, TriMet general manager.

Of course, no one is expected to download all those third-party transit apps on their iPhone. That's where Hard Drive comes in. We've tested them all and come up with a few that we think do the best job of helping wired commuters get around:

•PDX Bus: GPS is your BFF. Far and away our favorite, this free app displays arrival times on your iPhone, while allowing you to bookmark frequently used stops, display recently accessed stops and get details for arrivals that are en route. Big plus: It works flawlessly with Google maps. Downside: iPhone only.

•iBus: A svelt alternative to PDX Bus, it searches for the nearest stops, provides arrival information and displays a map. Simple can be sweet.

•Dadnab: Don't own a fancy-dancy iPhone or Blackberry? Well, take this one for a ride. It provides public transit directions and trip planning via text messaging. How old fashioned.

•POI Factory: For the tourist in us all, this web site provides points of interest (POI) files of TriMet stops via GPS (see, we told you it's the best commuting buddy you could ever have). Bonus feature: It'll also show you every red light camera location in the known universe. Actually, it's limited to the 50 states. Still ... pretty cool.

•iNap: No longer do you have to ask the rider in the next seat to give you a good nudge when the bus rolls up to your stop. This funky little app is designed to alert the sleepy rider when that happens.

"There are so many useful, smart tools being developed," said Carolyn Young, TriMet's executive director of Communications and Technology. "We don't have the resources to create these tools ourselves, and there are certainly ideas we haven't seen before or even thought about."

Now, if TriMet could only install a GPS system for downtown Portland that doesn't get whacked out by signals bouncing off the tall buildings, causing it to announce the wrong stops.